July 2020 saw France’s plugin passenger vehicle market share hit 9.5%, up from 2.5% in July 2019. The overall auto market showed continued recovery, up 3.7% in July 2020 compared to July 2019. Best selling plugin vehicles included the Renault Zoe and Peugeot e-208.
Plugin sales volume in July was 16,967, compared to 4,258 in July 2019 — a massive growth of 4× in absolute sales.
The detailed July plugin vehicle share breakdown was 5.57% (9967 units) full battery electric (BEV) and 3.91% (7000 units) plugin hybrid (PHEV). This is slightly stronger growth in share for PHEVs year-on-year. Although, BEVs remain the most popular type of plugin.
Provisional CCPA data only gives overall model-name sales for the month (“Peugeot 208”), not breaking out electric variants (“Peugeot e-208”). We can, however, identify that the Renault Zoe scored a strong 3,834 French sales in July, not as high as the record June push (6,011 sales) but still above the average of recent months, with 21,484 sales year-to-date. We can estimate that the Peugeot e-208 is set to retain the runner-up spot, with sales around the same level as June (which saw 2127 sales), and around 11,000 sales year to date.
Tesla’s Model 3 push peaked in June (620 units) due to the usual end-of-quarter shipment and sales push, and cooled to just 119 in July on lack of international shipment. The Model 3 retains the number 3 spot year to date, with almost 3,700 sales. Other popular models in France this year include the e-208’s PSA cousins, the DS Crossback EV and Peugeot e-2008. The Hyundai Kona EV, Kia Niro EV, and Nissan LEAF are also selling well.
We can expect French plugin sales to remain healthy through the rest of 2020. The Volkswagen ID.3 will appear in Europe mostly in Q4, and presumably will predominantly contribute to Germany’s plugin sales at first. This will likely see the Renault Zoe’s production (which has been popular in Germany this year) funneled even more strongly into the French market, perhaps with some modest price discounts.